RESOURCE CENTRE OF DEMOCRACY, GOOD GOVERNANCE,TRANSPARENCY,ACCOUNTABILITY,AND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EMERGING DEMOCRACIES IN THE HORN OF AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST. THE BLOG IS TRI-LINGUAL: ENGLISH, SOMALI AND ARABIC.
There is no democracy without effective opposition. And there is no effective opposition without free and independent media.
CONTACT: samotalis@gmail.com

27 March, 2014

Somaliland: An Open Letter to the British Prime Minister, His Excellency, RT Hon David Cameron

Somaliland: An Open Letter to the British Prime Minister, His Excellency, RT Hon David Cameron

Dear Prime Minister

The British Foreign Office blunder on Somaliland

I write further to the letter I received from the Foreign Office (FO) dated 11thNovember 2013 in response to the letter I addressed to you. That letter was aimed at bringing to your attention to the propensity of the FO misinformation on Somaliland pertaining to terrorism threats. Within the past six months, the FO promulgated twice in the media that Somaliland was facing eminent terrorism threat that had turned out to be incorrect. In the letter I sent to you, I delineated the inappropriate approximation of the FO of the state of Somaliland. With that regards, I had requested to interfere with the FO to desist the production of economically and politically damaging counterintuitive security warning on Somaliland that only aids terrorism. As the FO again issued last month a security threat warning emanating from Somaliland, I am writing to you again to similar request as the misinformation of FO on my native country is cringe at everything that has been achieved in the past twenty two years. I irratively elaborate on the economic and political cost of Britain Foreign Office dissemination of wrongful information on Somaliland – and it argued those security warning had been perplexed us and are impetus to terrorism in the region – In Somaliland terrorism was stemmed out whilst Uganda and Kenya are the most prone to terrorism in the region after Somalia.

Your Excellency, I have been involved in the transition of the Somaliland move from clan based system. In that transition, I was one of the founders of Somaliland’s first political party that had led the country to move fully fledged democratic system. With this background, I have taken the ownership and responsibility to respond to the FO ineptitude at Somaliland. To that capacity, the FO had been extrapolating the increase in terrorism activities in Somalia to causally link to Somaliland. To this end, the FO did not appear to have learned its pernicious claim to Somaliland stability as it had manifested devoid of knowledge of the state of Somaliland. With this devoid knowledge of FO as I had demystified in my previous letter, it was estimated to have predisposed Somaliland huge economic and political implication. Economically, it cost Somaliland millions in lost revenue and huge employment opportunities. That cost lost to FO misinformation is a foray into Somaliland could compute to be more than the support Britian has provided Somaliland since it reverted its independence from the Somalia i.e. in the past twenty two years. This FO policy on Somaliland is deleterious aggrandisement to Somaliland without substance that and it should have been averted. This is why I am again writing to you directly to the same context to appeal your altruism – to save Somaliland from economic and instability turbulence emanating from FO.

The economy lost out to the FO wrongful information on Somaliland, it could be equated to be in millions of dollars – when the Gunnel Oil exploration, which had signed a year before an oil exploration deal that was estimated to be hundreds of million dollars hastily withdrawn the country infatuated by the FO security warning. With this conflating with thousands of our people who had lost their money invested in local infrastructure in the regions that Gunned had been expected to carry out its oil exploration. This was further compounded by thousands of Somaliland people who had lost their promised employment opportunity. Our country has a high unemployment rate of estimated to be more than 80%. People of Somaliland cherish Britian for its support that has helped it to become the most stable and democratically advanced country in Africa, which is evident to be the second to none. The late Ethiopian Prime Minister was quoted to have said the democratic system Somaliland achieved was not only an example to Ethiopia but to Africa as a whole.

Far too many Somaliland academics such as me who looked into the FO security warning had found the claim did not hold water when was empirically tested. The question I was going to get an answer from you is -what was made the FO stubborn to issue a security warning on Somaliland that had no correlation to its situation. This does not mean to negate the pernicious claim of FO but all the hard evidence and statistics have pointed out the FO to be inept at the state of Somaliland since it reverted its independence from Somalia. To this end, It was of the empirical answer that FO was mistaken Somaliland to that of Somalia. Those security threats were extrapolative claim the FO had mirrored the situation of the Somaliland whenever there had been an increase in terrorism activities in Somalia. Your Excellency, my people would like your government to desist this deleterious claim by FO as it contextually causing huge economic and political instability in our country. Our people who had lost millions dollars when Gunnel left demanded the government to compensate their losses. It was narrowly avoided violent civil unrest, however, the FO did not appear to conceptualise the implication of the severity of its manifestation of misinformation of my native country.

Our president carried out visits to Somaliland regions across the country in this month, including to areas in the most southern peripheries – and the journey was carried out by land and conducted during the days and nights. This was a message that had been aimed at the FO and the international community that Somaliland does not only have the most advanced democracy in Africa but is the most stable country in Africa. The president’s visit took two weeks and was successfully concluded peacefully. Wherever, he had visited he was acclaimed a hero welcome. He finally returned safely to Hergeisa last week.

Finally, as I have aforementioned being a senior opposition politician and academic, and one of the founder of the first political party that have led Somaliland to the adaption of the multi-party democratic system, I assumed to have provided you an expert knowledge about Somaliland. With this regards, the currents Somaliland government has inherited a fully functioning state. This means, previous governments had put together a strong government institutions and completed the democratisation system fully. This government is expected to create enabling environment to induce economic growth, developments and employment opportunities. If it failed it would not only lose power, but if opportunities are not created for our unemployed estimated to be more than 80%, it will undermine all what has been achieved for the past twenty years. Somaliland people would love to see Britain helping Somaliland to complete its mission into statehood by supporting to secure international recognition that it has been seeking for the past twenty two years. In conclusion, I hope you will review the FO policy on Somaliland to ensure it does not aid terrorism agendas in Somaliland but to defeat them anywhere in the world.